


Fireburst

by ThatDamnKennedyKid



Series: The Winged Jedi [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Female Obi-Wan Kenobi, Wingfic, Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-15 17:19:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13618029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatDamnKennedyKid/pseuds/ThatDamnKennedyKid
Summary: Flight is something experienced by all clones from the staircruiser softshells to those landing in gunships.But nothing was like this.





	Fireburst

As soon as Hera had resent the transmission from Rex, she was in a starfighter. All the way from Naboo, she had gone as fast as the little ship allowed her to push it. She'd sent a requisition to General Amidala - if what the small crew reported was true, they were going to have to pull an old veteran out of retirement and get her polished up to regulation standard once more. 

The Negotiator would stand on the bridge of the  _Negotiator_ come hell or high water.

Ahsoka would make sure of it.

* * *

They hadn't bothered to move the AT-TE since the arrival of Ghost Company. 

"Cody, I need a manifest of the remaining rations and a rotation of food." Obi-Wan winced. "It's going to be tight, I'm afraid."

Cody smiled softly. "Don't worry, General. Can't be worse than that cave-in on Etherios."

She shivered just at its mention. No rations other than the standard sticks they normally carried and a two week wait for Anakin to find out where the tunnels had buried them when the supports collapsed. They were lucky a small spring had opened, otherwise the stretchers would have been for corpses instead of the near-dead. She refused to be moved to the Temple unless the clones were and so had spent the next month and a half with Ghost Company on a medical station trying not to throw up little bits of bread. "I know. But still, I would like our men to be able to  _walk_ before the Rebellion reaches us."

"If Rex can make it out here, you can be sure we can too, sir." Cody winked then walked off, going about cataloguing the remaining ration bars. 

"Sir, you don't need to worry too much about food. We know all the best places to hunt." Rex said, a little bashfully. 

The relief on her face was mild, which meant that she had been well and truly worried. "Thank you, Captain. We might need that help sooner than later."

He ducked his head with a shy little chuckle. "Heh, I know. Been out here with the boys for how many years? Ah, just- just let us know if there is anything we can do for you."

She gently cupped his elbow before he could leave - enough to stop him, but not enough to make him stay. He did anyway. "Have any of the men been strange with you? I notice you go often without the helmet."

Ah, the age. "No sir. The brothers are just as they've always been. Rib me a little for not getting around as well as I used to, but that's to be expected from family."

She averted her eyes and he tried not to feel shock at her showing nervousness. "If you need me for anything, I am at your disposal."

He laid his hand over hers, squeezing lightly. "I know, General. You always were."

Those eyes were so blue, so soulful and beautiful - a gem he'd longed to see for years. She offered him a tiny smile, the kind she used to give Ahsoka when the girl had been learning how to repair engines and mastered a particularly difficult part. He gave her back a broad grin, something he'd been too up his own ass to give more back then. She brightened at its appearance, just as he knew she would. For Kenobi, it was the small things in her world. 

Ezra came running up to them, caught somewhere between anxiety and delight. "Uh, Master Kenobi? We just got a message from Ahsoka. She's on her way here. She wants to see you."

"So Ahsoka is alive." She murmured before placing a hand on Ezra's head. "What did her transmission say?"

"She said she should be here in a day or so. Kanan informed her of the number of troops, so she's making arrangements for their transport as well, though it will take some time to reach Seelos."

She nodded, smiling a little exaggeratedly for his benefit. "Thank you, youngling."

He flushed. Someone was developing a crush. "It was nothing."

"All efforts deserve appreciation." 

"Hey, Ezra!" Waxer called, waving to the boy. "Do you know how to play Airball?"

Hyperactive and friendly, the youngling ran over to them, catching the ball Crys tossed his way. "I might. What are the rules?"

Waxer took the ball, tossing it lightly into the air, then bouncing it back up on his knee. "The object of the game if to keep the ball in the air and pass it around. You can use any of your body parts, but the ball can't touch the ground."

"Oh. I haven't played before, but that sounds fun."

"Do you wanna play with us?"

"Sure!"

Waxer grinned, ruffling his hair. "I'll warn ya, some of the brothers are show-offs."

Crys snorted. "Don't get mad at me just because you don't have a flexible bone in your body."

"I do too!"

"Just start the damn game!" Boil yelled. 

Rex melted when Kenobi laughed, a melodic thing that carried on the wind like alto chimes - just the right pitch injected with the passion of life. He realized when she turned to him that he hadn't let her hand go. 

"Say, Captain. Have I ever taken you flying?"

He blinked. "Taken . . . me flying?"

She nodded. "Usually avian-esque Jedi have light, breakable structures with light, blending pinions. My people are raptors, birds of prey."

"Stewjon, right sir?"

"Correct. Mine are a dwindling kind, from one particular mountain range." She paused for a second, as though considering something. "I suppose that's something else I have in common with the  _vode_. My people are also a warrior-race."

He chuckled. "Oh yeah?"

"Most certainly. I don't think fighting ever reached Stewjon, but the kind of things raptors are supposed to hunt there are larger than we are and nastier than the  _gutkurr_ of Ryloth."

"And they're no joke." Kayd muttered from where he was sitting above them on a gunship.

Kenobi grinned, a wild, unfettered thing. "We are made dense, with heavy, resilient bone structures. Made to fight, to fly our lowland prey up to our mountaintop nests."

"But how would . . .  _flying_ with me work?"

"I spread and lower my wings, you wrap your arms around my neck and your legs around my waist and I carry us up into the air." She was so beautiful in the desert sun, shining ever so radiantly. 

"I'm not sure about that, sir."

Her smirk was a roguish, slanted thing. "If you're not confident in your ability to hold on, I can carry you."

As much as his pride recoiled, he had to admit it eventually. "I . . . wouldn't mind to fly with you. I don't think I'd have enough strength to keep myself on you just during takeoff, let along all those fancy tricks of yours."

"That's fine. Only Cody and Qui-Gon managed to stay on my back on their first runs, both times because they were terrified beyond their wits."

"And with good reason." Cody snorted, handing her a data pad. "The first time you flew with me, you never told me how fast or how high we would be going. I thought I was going to die. When we breached the clouds, I was damn near certain."

She rolled her eyes playfully. "You were fine."

"I threw up in my helmet on my first run." Helix remarked as he passed by, carrying a box of bacta patches and a data pad, no doubt doing his medic inventory while he had the time. 

"That's why I told you to leave your bucket on the ground. The visor can't keep up with the motion blur."

Helix looked up at her with a sarcastic eyebrow raise. "Well, I know that now, don't I?"

She shook her head with a fond smile. "So sassy. Who did you learn this from?"

"Sorry sir. I don't remember."

She scoffed, but Rex skimmed his fingers over hers gently. " . . . I'd like to go up."

She perked up again, forgetting the other clones. "Cody, grab me the flight suit, will you?"

* * *

The 'flight suit' was more along the lines of close-fitting Jedi robes that fit nicely over top of his blacks. 

"I can carry three fully-armoured troopers, but if I don't have to, I prefer they weigh as little as possible. This will protect you from the chill of the wind and any whiplash from turbulence if we encounter it."

It was strange and even a little uncomfortable, but he pulled it on, thankful he was in private. He'd never had an issue changing in front of the brothers before, but years and age had weighed him down more literally than metaphorically and the struggle to don the suit was more than a little embarrassing. When he came out, Kenobi had made no comment, but there was certainly something in the way she looked at him. 

"Are you ready, Captain?"

"As much as I'm ever likely to be, sir." He replied. 

"Alright. Valor, open the doors of your gunship, please." She instructed. The pilot nodded, hopping into the cockpit and opening both blast doors. 

"Are we jumping out of the gunship?" He asked a little nervously. He didn't know if he was ready for that.

"Of course not. That would leave an awful first impression. I'm already working against the fear of heights Anakin gave you on Geonosis. I need more space to take off than I have in here if I'm bringing a passenger."

"I . . . see. Lead on, General." Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Kanan and Ezra's piqued interest, knowing the two fledgling Jedi were going to follow them out to see this new spectacle. Sabine and Zeb were atop the tank, watching as though they didn't think she could do it. 

"Ten credits she tanks it." Zeb muttered. 

"I'll take that." Sabine replied. 

"Hey, she's a legendary master for a reason." Ezra pouted. "Give her some credit."

Zeb snorted. "If she takes off with the geezer on her back,  _she_ gets the ten credits."

Ezra pouted again, but Kenobi and Rex had disappeared around the other side of the gunship and he  _really_ didn't want to miss a takeoff of hers.

Cody was with them, his hand on his brother's shoulder. "It's going to feel a little choppy because she has to flap to keep both of you aloft, but once you adjust, it'll be fine. Like runnin' on an AT-RT."

"I can jump off an AT-RT."

Cody chuckled. "Yeah, maybe. But she'll catch you."

"Comforting."

"It should be." Valor commented, leaning over the edge of his cockpit. "When a ship like this goes down, there's no escape."

She shook her shoulders, letting the massive span behind her unfurl like a sheet of dazzling copper. The elbow joint shifted, rolling around in its socket, stretching. 

"I didn't know it could move like that."

She smirked. "My ability to hover has pulled Valor out of burning gunships more than once."

The brother looked away, appropriately chastised. 

"On many avian types, including proper birds, this joint here," She nudged her second joint, after the one in her shoulder on the end of her humerus, "is a limited elbow instead of a ball joint. I can rotate it most directions and have the bones of my wings point almost directly to the ground."

"It's fun to watch her sweep the feet out from under droids." Fluff chuckled, polishing the spare rifles on top of Valor's ship.

"If it catches the wrong way, it pulls of feathers." Cody returned, stubbornly defensive. "Don't encourage her."

"One feather isn't going to impact my flight, Commander." She gentled, reaching out to pet her fingertips over his scar. That was something Rex had never seen her do. Perhaps in the safe, loyal company of Ghost she was looser. Anakin must have learned love and comfort from somewhere, after all. 

"It could." He argued, frowning that adorable frown that made him look like a cadet again instead of the imposing Flight Marshall he was. 

She huffed fondly, not bothering to argue further. "Come, Rex. Arms around my neck, please."

He climbed onto her back with Cody's help, locking his arms in the best position. Her primaries fluttered excitedly against the sand, the muscles of her back and surrounding the humerus were wound tight, strong and hard as they flexed under him. She was crouched, legs bunched underneath them, ready to throw them headlong into the sky. 

It was in the moment before all of that predatory strength unleashed that the sick feeling of doubt rolled through his stomach. 

"Sir-"

She leapt, thirty-five meters straight up into the air before she tilted down, back towards the sand and they began to fall. 

"Sir-!"

Five meters from the ground, he felt a sudden catch and the muscles clench. She caught the draft, sweeping in low and long against the ground before giving a powerful flap and propelling them into the sky. He felt the strain of her muscles underneath his chest, each powerful flap like a drumroll. 

"Look around, Captain!" She called over the wind. "See your world!"

Far, far below them, the white and yellow gunships shone like distant little mirrors, reflecting the beautiful desert sun. All around them hundreds of miles of beige sand. She rose higher, her wind chime laugh passing to and flying past him, and sparkling just on the edge of the horizon, was a rim of blue. 

"What is that?" He yelled. 

"That, my friend, is an ocean." She called back, continuing to climb at an eighty degree angle. He held on tighter, so afraid to be dropped. 

Up and up and up until chill broke out on his cheekbones. She held out her arms, fingertips passing through a white mist. 

"Welcome to the clouds, Captain!" She changed the angle of her shoulders and suddenly they were flying  _through_ the dense whiteness, coming out on the other side in a rush of speed. "Hold on! We're going to begin dancing!"

"Dancing?!"

She levelled off, giving him about a minute to take in the truly breathtaking amount of the planet he could see, before cutting her wings down and sending them into a headlong dive. Her wings pulled in tighter to her body, her humerus touching the side of his ribs, and she wrapped her hand around his forearm. He was sure she was going to smash them headlong into the ground. 

A slight twist to her elbow joint sent them into a spin that picked up speed far too fast for his liking. A kilometer or so from their imminent death, she opened up her wings again and caught the change in atmosphere density, lending her a burst of speed unlike anything he'd ever felt. 

Over the desert, they gathered momentum, her wings kicking up to beat twice as fast as they had on the climb. He tucked his head in next to hers, the wind pulling his mouth open when he opened it to start cheering. There was nothing as primally satisfying to a clone as speed or explosions. 

She made the effort seem effortless, pushing and pushing and pushing until he could barely breathe with the force of the air in his mouth. She changed their angle again and they swirled around in wide loops, cycling back into the sky before spinning around and dipping again to gather speed once more. She ducked them down close enough to the ground that her primary flights were only a few meters above the sand. He started yelling again, would have pumped his fists in the air if he hadn't been afraid of falling off. 

They were zipping back in the direction of the little camp, and she gave them just enough lift just in time to barely pass over the gunships. She circled back then, winding down their speed by doing increasingly slower laps of the ring of ships. Her stop was more graceful than he'd anticipated it feeling, with their bodies pulled suddenly back to verticality, but no jarring sensation. A flew shallow flaps had them landing back on the ground, nearly in the same place she'd taken off from. 

She turned to look at him with a self-satisfied smirk, breathing barely hurried. "Cody, would you please assist the poor Captain? I can feel the adrenaline shakes and I don't think he'll be able to stand on his own."

Cody and Lander came over, helping the old clone down off her back. He was indeed badly shaking, but he was grinning like a lunatic.

"That was amazing!" He laughed, body still rigidly locked in position. 

"Cups, grab the General's  _gal_ from Tef-Rityye." Lander called. 

"On it." The brother called back, running off. 

"You carry it with you?" She asked, stretching out her wings and making sure the muscles were properly settled as to not cramp with disuse. Ezra fluttered around her, unable to stop himself from reaching out to touch the hardy pinions. 

"Of course. Never know when you're getting ready to traumatize a shiny." Cody replied, helping Rex to straighten his legs. 

"Huh." 

"That was so cool! I can't believe you actually can do that, carrying someone on your back, even!" Ezra chirped, so excited he could barely contain himself. 

"Oh, youngling. You have no idea." She ruffled his hair, grinning roguishly. "When I'm up there alone, I can do almost anything."

If possible, it made him even more excited. "Really?"

"Don't get him too wound up." Joystick laughed. "The boy will never be able to sleep if he's got thoughts of airdances in his head."

"Please, it's barely noon." She complained. 

"No, he's right." Kanan sounded like it pained him to say it, to agree with a clone even on something as benign as this. "Ezra's too curious for his own good."

"Well, unfortunately little one, I can't take you up in their air any time soon."

He deflated instantly. "Why not?"

"You are far from disciplined enough to be able to remain still enough for me to fly. It takes quite a bit of trust and a lot of self-control to make for a safe flight."

"But Commander Cody just said you took clones up there all the time without warning!"

She knelt down in front of him, pulling one wing up to shield them from the glare of the sun. Even the feathers underneath were a glossy bronze, deeper than the others and not as shiny, but beautiful all the same. "The clones are all exceptionally well trained men who are always in control of themselves. If I command them to be still, even if they are afraid, they will do as I say. You do not have the years or training necessary yet to do such a thing."

"How do you know?"

"Because Ahsoka said the same thing when Anakin told her she wasn't ready, and Anakin said the same thing when I told him he wasn't ready." She gentled her smile, pulling him forwards to bump their heads together. "I will teach you to control your body, but you must have patience and the will to learn. Self-control does not come easily, but it is the cornerstone of the Jedi way of life."

Ezra took a deep breath, visibly calmed himself, and opened his eyes to meet hers. She smiled encouragingly. "Okay. I want to learn."

"Good. We'll begin tonight, before you go to sleep with Waxer."

"Okay."

"Found the  _gal_!" Cups announced, running up with a clear bottle with a clear liquid inside. "Don't have any tumblers, though."

"Eh, these'll do you better anyway." Shotglass handed them a  . . . well, a shot glass. "That one is from Meitan."

Cups ribbed him for his weird collection, but Cody took the proffered glass and filled it halfway with the clear liquid.

"What is it?" Ezra asked. 

"It's a vodka from a Middle Rim world I'm quite fond of." Obi-Wan explained. "It tastes like vanilla chocolate and looks like water. Got me through quite a few Council meetings when Anakin was a teenager."

Ezra nodded, watching Cody help Rex take the shot of liquor. After a few moments, the shaking settled down (though it didn't vanish) and the old clone regained control of himself in full. 

"That's some powerful stuff." Rex remarked.

"Ah, you just got used to Skywalker's shit taste in alcohol." Cody ribbed. 

"Anakin's taste in booze was dreadful." Obi-Wan chuckled. "I'm sorry he put you through that, Captain."

"No worries, General. I just didn't know alcohol could actually taste good."

She shook her head and stood, a hand on the youngling's shoulder. "Is that the only bottle?"

"Can only get one past the Admiral, sir." Longshot yelled from inside the circle of ships. 

"I'm afraid I don't have enough to get us all properly drunk, then. Pity." She walked off, wings folded back up nice and comfortable against her back. Kanan came to stand up beside her and they watched her go, as though she hadn't just been speeding across the desert.

* * *

Deep in the night, watching the stars, Obi-Wan stood atop Helios' gunship, looking out towards the ocean. The sentinels were switching duty and for a brief moment, she was there alone. 

Many of the clones forgot that she'd spent two years on the run with Satine, deeply in love, but also deeply curious. She had a knack for languages, one neither Qui-Gon nor Anakin seemed to possess. So, when her clones spoke honestly to each other in Mando'a, she pretended she could not understand to allow them their privacy. But she had heard Wolffe the previous night, the word he muttered when Rex told her of what Anakin did to the Temple. 

" _Demagolka._ " She repeated to herself, arms crossed contemplatively. 

If that was how Wolffe seen him - a Commander who had been through atrocity after atrocity - then she was going to have to set aside her heart. There were others in need of protection. Others that Anakin would have protected, even if Darth Vader will not. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Gal - booze  
> Demagolka - committer of atrocities, war criminal, real-life monster


End file.
